Theresa May has struck a deal with George Osborne agreeing to cut Home Office
spending but protect the police's budget for tackling terrorism

Mrs May, the Home Secretary, has agreed to substantial cuts to her department, but the counter-terrorism budget will be ring-fenced.

She was one of several ministers fighting to protect her budget agaisnt the Treasury's efforts to secure £11.5 billion of cuts from Whitehall departments for the year 2015/16.

Today, the Treasury announced six departments have reached settlements totaling £1.1 billion, including pledges from Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, and Maria Miller, the Culture and Media Secretary.

It amounts to an eight per cent cut to the budgets of across all six departments, which also include the Scotland Office, Wales Office and the Law Officers Department.

This means Mr Osborne has managed £3.6 billion of cuts - meaning he is about a third of his way to his goal. The latest ministers to sign up to cuts adds to departments who signed up to cuts £1.5 bilion of cuts last month and £1 billion of cuts in announced in the Budget.

More than half of all departments have signed up to a provisional settlement setting out savings. However, some of the biggest and trickiest deals are still to come from 10 more departments, including controversial cuts to the Ministry of Defence.

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the settlements "show we continue to make real progress towards the savings we need while protecting priority areas".

"Counter terrorism policing is a crucial part of our national security and I took no convincing of the need to protect this area. Given recent events in Woolwich, we cannot compromise on our national security," he said.

“None of the spending choices we make are easy, but ensuring the UK can pay its way in the world is vital to our long terms prosperity. Settling over half of Departments with two weeks to go shows how committed the whole of Government is to dealing with the deficit.”